Nenana complex

The Nenana complex is a prehistoric North American culture that predates the oldest finds of the Clovis culture . It was named after the site on the Nenana River in Alaska , a valley southwest of Fairbanks . Their artifacts were still found among those of the Denali complex , one of the early Alaskan archaeological cultures. In contrast to the other Paleo-Indian cultures there were no microblades , very small stone blades .

Several of the five sites were dated to before 11,000 BP , such as the Walker Road site , which has five finds of this age alone. The oldest has been dated to 10,820 ± 200 years. Artifacts at the Broken Mammoth site are of a similar age and are considered to be particularly well dated. Other sites on the complex include Dry Creek , Moose Creek, and Chugwater . Only at Dry Creek were there organic animal remains, namely sheep and deer. In addition, so-called gastroliths were found, stones that come from the gizzards of birds, presumably grouse and ptarmigan.

The finds are projectile points that are triangular, often with curves that sometimes result in a teardrop shape. They have a serrated base, but are not fluted . There are also end and side scrapers, burins and knives sharpened on one side, as well as hammer stones and anvil stones. The tools and weapons are closer to the Clovis devices than those of the Denali complex .

A find in the neighboring Teklanika Valley has been dated to an age of 11,340 ± 150 years.

The blades are known as Chindadn points , the word coming from the local Athabaskan language spoken by the White River First Nation . In their area, about twelve kilometers north of Beaver Creek , similar blades were found, possibly of the same age and the Nenana culture.

literature

F. Ted Goebel, Roger Powers, Nancy Bigelow: The Nenana Complex and Clovis origins: comparative lithic analyzes of the first new world paleoindian complexes , in: R. Bonnichsen, K. Turnmire (eds.): Clovis Origins and Adaptations , Center for the Study of the First Americans, Oregon State University, Corvallis 1991, pp. 49-79.
RG Matson, Gary Coupland: The Prehistory of the Northwest Coast , Left Coast Press, 2009 (Reprint: Routledge, 2016).
NA Easton, GR MacKay, PB Young, P. Schnurr, DR Yesner: Nenana in Canada? Emergent Evidence of the Pleistocene Transition in Southeast Beringia from the Little John Site, Yukon Territory, Canada , presented at the Society for American Archeology on March 28, 2008 in Vancouver.

Remarks

^ John F. Hoffecker, William R. Powers: Late Pleistocene Settlement in the Nenana Valley, Central Alaska , in: American Antiquity 54.2 (1989), pp. 263-287, here: p. 270.
^ E. James Dixon: Bones, boats & bison: archeology and the first colonization of western North America , University of New Mexico Press 1999, p. 167.

[1] John F. Hoffecker, William R. Powers: Late Pleistocene Settlement in the Nenana Valley, Central Alaska , in: American Antiquity 54.2 (1989), pp. 263-287, here: p. 270.

[2] E. James Dixon: Bones, boats & bison: archeology and the first colonization of western North America , University of New Mexico Press 1999, p. 167.